Mary Help of Christians Demolition OK’d, Preservationists Plan Rally

A plan to demolish Mary Help of Christians has been approved despite preservationists’ efforts to keep the century-old church standing.

“It’s really a terrible loss for the East Village,” said Richard Moses, president of the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative. Mr. Moses said his preservation group and others requested a meeting with Douglas Steiner, the developer who bought the church property for $41 million last November, but never heard back. Now the groups are planning a rally for next month.

The application for full demolition was approved by the Department of Buildings yesterday, documents show. Mr. Steiner’s plans call for an 80/20-percent mix of market-rate and affordable housing.

“We’ve reached out to other groups in the neighborhood and we’ll see what the next steps should be,” said Mr. Moses. “At this point, it’s going to be up to Steiner’s goodwill for any chance for this building to survive.” He believes the church could stand alongside new construction. “It should be fairly easy to incorporate the church into the new development. There are millions of examples of churches being converted for residential or commercial use. Why he would not decide to go that route is a mystery to me.”

Andrew Berman, the executive director for the G.V.S.H.P., called the latest development “heartbreaking.” “It is a shame,” he said. “We had asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider the building for landmark designation, given its incredible history and beautiful architecture. They refused to even hold a hearing on it.” The G.V.S.H.P., the L.E.S.P.I., the Historic Districts Council, and the East Village Community Coalition made the request in February; it was rejected because the church didn’t meet the criteria for designation.

Neighborhood residents, some of whom had joined preservationists’ efforts, are also disturbed by the development. Diana Timmons, who lives steps away from the church and mailed a letter asking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to evaluate it, told The Local, “This is such sad news. Now our block will look like any other block in the depressed downtown of any city.”

Janet Bonica, a former parishioner whose grandparents were were married in the church’s chapel in 1909 and whose parents were married there in 1946, told The Local, “We knew this day was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept this sad news. This is a great loss for those of us with ties to Mary Help of Christians, as well as to those who live in the neighborhood.”

“I never thought I would see the day when my church would be demolished,” she said. “I feel like my past is being erased.”

Margaret Hearn, a longtime former parishioner and neighborhood resident, said former parishioners continue to pray the rosary outside the church. “It continues a familial bond for the parishioners,” she said.

2 Comments

Must everything be about the almighty dollar? I grew up in that neighborhood in the 50′s and 60′s. It is now all being eraced. That church has the most beautiful interior. We go to Europe and other countries to see their seights. Their seights are preserved. We will have nothing but high rise buildings and transports into our neighborhoods. I was born on 11 Street between ave A & B. That was a neighborhood. Poor but we had heart and soul. Our places of worship should be saved. The public bath on 11 street and the church were saved. Why not this church. You all better get your priororities straight. The buildings will be structures with no history. It’s a terrible mistake.

It should be clarified — the article says that our request that the NYC Landmarks Preservation consider the church for individual landmark status to save it “was rejected because the church didn’t meet the criteria for designation.” This implies that it’s not meeting the criteria is an objective fact. This is far from true.

The LPC’s decision not to consider the church for designation reflects their own subjective interpretation of what that criteria is, and in this and in many other cases, that interpretation may seem quite arbitrary and inconsistent with other decisions the commission has made. Few would argue that this church has sufficient historic and architectural merit to at least warrant consideration for landmark status.

But rather than hold a public hearing and allow all evidence to be weighed and a decision made by the full eleven professional members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Chair of the Commission decided that it did not even merit such an airing, and refused to allow even a public hearing to be held.

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